A seemingly very confused broody hen

[HeritageGoose13]

I'm still new to turkeys...so forgive me if I sound like an idiot...but I thought they only brooded in the spring. Is it warm where you are?

It is Spring in the Southern Hemisphere right now.

South America, Australia/Oceania, and parts of Africa are all in Spring now. They have their seasons opposite of us.

 

[Thequast]

I'm still new to turkeys...so forgive me if I sound like an idiot...but I thought they only brooded in the spring. Is it warm where you are?

No problem. I'm not sure about that...I think they can brood twice a year depending on climate, but here in South America it's springtime now. This time of year here we get big fluctuations. We've already been in the 100's and down into the 40's. The day I started taking her water in the nest box was about 98F in the afternoon

 

[memphis]

Oh..didn't realize where you were! If it's spring there, then yes! It's the right time of year. We are heading into fall here. Most turkey hens are wrapping it up for the year!

 

[Thequast]

Time for another update.

So after about two weeks of the first hen sitting, and the second hen laying an egg about every other day, the second hen decided it was time for her to sit too. So both hens are sitting on the same nest, ten eggs, which they steal back and forth all day long (which I figure is fine because at least it keeps them rotated right?)

As previously mentioned hen #1 has not budged a bit even to get off the nest and poop. Hen #2 took her advice and decided to not move either. After cleaning up poop under hen #1 I was like "forget this". I figured I would pull one off the nest so she could do her business and go back on the nest if she wanted to. If it didn't work I had hen #2 as backup.

Pulled hen #1 off the nest after like 17 days of not moving. She had a hard time walking at first but after a little bit took a dust bath, ate, drank, pooped, and went back on the nest. Score! Did the same with hen #2. Neither gets off of their own initiative, but both will go back after I pull them off. Hen #1 is getting some strength back as I've been doing this every day now.

Eggs should start hatching this week. I say start hatching because they were laid and sat on in stages...I estimate the last ones are two weeks behind the first three. We'll just roll with it. Hopefully the girls hatch out 5 or 6 by themselves and then the remaining couple can go in the to-be-completed incubator.

As a side note, when I took the 2 eggs away from hen #1 way in the beginning of this experiment, I gave them to my neighbor who had a broody hen. That broody hen hatched her eggs out so the turkey eggs were moved to another broody hen. One of those just hatched. He's a cute little guy and has got me all excited for mine this week!

 

[Thequast]

It's a good morning here at the "farm". Two eggs -- the ones due for today -- have both hatched. Chicks look good!

Things could still get hairy...since the hens kept stealing eggs back and forth, there's one chick under each hen. Still 8 eggs to hatch out on various days. Some potential problems could be the hens fighting over the chicks, or leaving the eggs that still have another ten days or so to hatch. In this part of the world it's hard to get mail...bus that was bringing me my thermostat yesterday broke down. Hopefully will get my thermostat and have the incubator up and running to hatch any other eggs if the hens move on.

But so far so good! It hasn't been easy. The pooping in the nest has been the most annoying...but hey, their are two poults and the mommies seem happy and are taking good care of them that I can see so far.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll update again when the other 8 eggs hatch. Will also let you know what happens with the "co-mothers"

 

[memphis]

Pictures! We want pictures!

 

[Thequast]

More pics and info to come, but since I finally figured out how to share pictures I thought I'd upload this pic from the first morning. Chick #1 can be seen in the back corner. Chick #2 is under mom. Chick #3 was pipping at the time.

 

[Thequast]

Ok...here's one more

 

[feistychick]

So cute!

 

[memphis]

X2..so cute!